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Privacy Policy

IRF General Privacy Policy

Unless otherwise stated on any of the IRF sites this Privacy Policy applies to all of the products, services and websites (hereinafter referred to as “Services”) offered by the Information Retrieval Facility Society (hereinafter referred to as IRF or we/us), ZVR-Number: 589671732, Am Brigittenauer Sporn 5, A-1200 Vienna, Austria or its subsidiaries.

IRF, a society registered under the laws of Austria, an EU Member state, abides by the rules of the Austrian Data Protection Law and the Austrian Telecommunications Act. Any personal data collected by the IRF is collected, processed and used in line with the requirements of the Austrian Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz, DSG 2000), and is treated in compliance with the Austrian Telecommunications Act (Telekommunikationsgesetz, TKG). In case of a conflict between mandatory provisions of the Austrian Data Protection Law, the Austrian Telecommunications Act and this Privacy Policy, the mandatory provisions of the Austrian Data Protection Law or the Austrian Telecommunications Act shall prevail.

Further information upon the Austrian Telecommunications Act you may find under http://www.rtr.at.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us at office@ir-facility.org

1. Information IRF collects and how IRF uses it

In order to provide IRF’s full range of Services, IRF may collect the following types of information:

Information you provide – When you sign up for any of the services IRF provides we ask you for personal information (such as your name, your organisation, email address, your or your organisation’s address, your telephone number and your date of birth etc.).

For certain Services, IRF may also request credit card or other payment account information which IRF maintains in encrypted form on secure servers.

Cookies – Small files containing a string of characters, so called “cookies”, will be sent to your computer. We are using cookies and other devices in order to uniquely identify your browser, which could improve the quality of our Services.

Log information – When you access IRF Services, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit our websites. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.

User communications – When you send emails or other communications to us, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our Services.

Affiliated IRF Services on other sites – IRF offers some of its Services on or through other web sites. Personal information that you provide to those sites may be sent to IRF in order to deliver the Service. We process such information under this Privacy Policy. The affiliated sites through which our Services are offered may have different privacy practices and the terms and conditions of those other sites shall apply.

Plug-ins and Gadgets – IRF may make available third party applications through its Services. The information collected by IRF when you enable an application is processed under this Privacy Policy. Information collected by the application provider is governed by their privacy policies.

Links – IRF may present links in a format that enables us to keep track of whether these links have been followed. We use this information to improve the quality of our search technology and customised content.

Other sites – This Privacy Policy applies to IRF Services only. We do not exercise control over the sites displayed as search results, sites that include IRF applications, products or services, or links from within our various services. These other sites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you.

This data protection declaration does not apply to any of these other sites; in other words, IRF does not assume any liability whatsoever for such content.

IRF only processes personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and/or the supplementary privacy notices for specific services. In addition to the above, such purposes include:

Providing our Services, including the display of customised content;

Auditing, research and analysis in order to maintain, protect and improve our Services;

Ensuring the technical functioning of our network;

Protecting the rights or property of IRF or our users; and

Developing new services.

2. Choices for personal information

When you sign up for a particular Service that requires registration, we ask you to provide personal information. If we use this information in a manner different than the purpose for which it was collected, then we will ask for your consent prior to such use.

Additional personal information is only collected when you provide it voluntarily, for example when you sign up for a service and provide information about yourself to this end. We only use this information to the extent necessary to provide the respective service.

Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some IRF features and Services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. You can decline to submit personal information to any of our Services, in which case IRF may not be able to provide those Services to you.

3. IRF does not share personal information

IRF does not shares personal information with other companies or individuals outside of IRF. We may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated non personal information, such as the number of users who searched for a particular term, for example. Such information does not identify you individually.

4. Information security

IRF takes appropriate security measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, unauthorised alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorised access to systems which store personal data.

We restrict access to personal information to IRF employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our Services. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations or non disclosure agreements and may be subject to discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations.

5. Data integrity

IRF processes personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected and in accordance with this Privacy Policy or any applicable Service-specific privacy notice. We review our data collection, storage and processing practices to ensure that we only collect, store and process the personal information needed to provide or improve our Services or as otherwise permitted under this Policy. We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we process is accurate, complete, and current, but we depend on our users to update or correct their personal information whenever necessary.

6. Accessing and updating personal information

You have the right to view, correct and delete the personal information that we have saved about you in accordance with the provisions of the Austrian Data Protection Act (especially §§ 26–28 DSG 2000). You can contact us for these purposes by regular mail at the IRF address listed.

7. Enforcement

IRF regularly reviews its compliance with this Privacy Policy. Please feel free to direct any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or IRF’s treatment of personal information by contacting us through this web site or by writing to us at

When we receive formal written enquiries at this address, it is the IRF’s policy to contact the enquirer regarding his or her concerns. We will cooperate with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that cannot be resolved between the IRF and an individual.

8. Changes to this Privacy Policy

Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent, and we expect most such changes will be minor. Regardless, we will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page. Each version of this Privacy Policy will be identified at the top of the page by its effective date, and we will also archive prior versions of this Privacy Policy for your review. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us through this web site or at

The general information provided on the IRF web sites is compiled and updated to the best of IRF’s knowledge. However, the possibility that information may be incomplete, out of date or erroneous cannot be ruled out. Therefore, IRF cannot guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the site's content and shall not be held liable for any damage arising from such content. Any measures taken on the basis of the information provided on this web site are to be taken at the sole risk of you respectively the users or visitors in question, who are advised to seek legal counsel for their individual needs. Moreover, IRF assumes no liability for content provided via links to other Internet sites beyond IRF's sphere of influence. IRF will follow up on any indications of errors without delay and correct such errors.